Emerson Drive headlining country night at Peachfest 2019

The Penticton Peach Festival announced that Emerson Drive will be the headliner on Tim Hortons Country Night on Aug. 8.

“Emerson Drive has toured with many of the biggest names in country music including Shania Twain, Toby Keith and Big & Rich. We can’t wait to have them on the Peters Bros. Construction stage this summer,” said Don Kendall, Penticton Peach Festival president.

For well over a decade, Emerson Drive has been one of the top Canadian country groups. They have enjoyed widespread success in the United States and are a staple in the country music community, known for being a band to crank out the hits, deliver electrifying stage shows and wow audiences all across North America.

Emerson Drive has racked up countless award nominations in both the U.S. country market at the Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, as well as in Canada where they have picked up multiple trophies for Group or Duo of the Year from the Canadian Country Music Association.

Emerson Drive, one of country music’s most popular acts, is performing at Peach Festival this August. Submitted photo

In 2007, their hit, Moments, pushed Emerson Drive over the top in country music.

“Looking back 10 years ago and seeing where our career first started with I Should Be Sleeping and knowing that there was a movement going around us as a new act on the scene, I just remember how exciting and crazy it was, all at the same time,” said Emerson Drive’s lead vocalist and founding member Brad Mates. “We were out there on the road over 240 days of the year for the first six years. I just remember those times being kind of eyes wide open, taking everything in. It was such a great first few years and, now fast-forward 10 or 11 years, we’re still playing music and making music. Longevity has always been a goal for me in this band, so to think we’ve now been doing it for 17 years — straight out of high school — is the ultimate. We’re doing something right.”

The group has several successful studio albums, including their Nashville debut Emerson Drive in 2002. That was followed by What If? in 2004, their 2006 release Countrified and 2009’s Believe. After taking a break from recording new music, the band returned to the studio under their own supervision without involving a record label. The result was Roll, an 11-track album with songs mostly penned by the band and then Tilt-a-Whirl, which was released in 2015.

“We felt it was time to turn this thing up a bit and find a place where we are really identifying the instrumentation that we have in the group,” said Mates. “I really feel like that sets us apart from everybody else. I think we know our fan base fairly well, and I know that there a lot of industry experts out there who have heard Emerson Drive over the past decade. I really feel like this is the album, and the sound, that will keep our band moving forward for another 10 years.”

Among their list of hits are Just Got Paid, Fall Into Me, Last One Standing, She’s My Kind of Crazy and The Road (released in 2018).

“Having a group with so many accolades as a headliner at the Penticton Peach Festival, where the audience gets to watch them for free, wouldn’t be possible without the sponsorship of Tim Hortons. We cannot thank them enough for helping bring Emerson Drive to our free, family-friendly event,” said PeachFest president Kendall.

Emerson Drive has charted nine singles on the U.S. Country Music Countdown, four of those have charted on the Billboard Hot 100. As well, Emerson Drive has been nominated for 22 Canadian Country Music Awards (six wins), four Juno Awards and a Grammy.

In 2008, they were nominated for Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Association and for a Grammy for Best Country Performance for their monster hit Moments.